In this penultimate chapter of Columbia's 15-part Batman serial from 1943, Japanese agent provocateur Dr. Daka (J. Carrol Naish) has abducted the girlfriend (former Miss California Shirley Patterson) of Gotham City millionaire Bruce Wayne (Lewis Wilson) to prove his suspicion that Wayne and vigilante superhero The Batman are one and the same. Erasing Linda's will in his patented "zombie chair," Daka uses the helpless heroine to lure Batman into his clutches, with a plan of unmasking the Caped Crusader before feeding him to his pet alligators. Second-billed Douglas Croft remains the youngest actor ever to appear as Robin, the Boy Wonder. A Warner Bros. contract player, Croft was often called upon to play the younger version of adult actors in movie biographies or films spanning several years, a service the former Douglas Malcolm Wheatcroft provided for Shepperd Struckwick in Remember the Day (1941), Ronald Reagan in King's Row (1942), James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), Glenn Ford in Flight Lieutenant (1942), and Gary Cooper in Pride of the Yankees (1942)--all made before Croft donned the cameo mask of the Boy Wonder. Croft's final role was as a boxer bested in the ring by first-time pugilist Mickey Rooney in Killer McCoy (1947). Two years later, Columbia released a serial sequel to Batman, Batman and Robin (1949), starring two new actors as the Dynamic Duo. Douglas Croft died at age 37 in 1963, never having realized his schoolboy ambition to be the next Clark Gable.

By Richard Harland Smith